Fifty Shades of Rape Culture

The movie will surely have lovely music, beautiful cinematography, gorgeous actors, and make this look like a dream. A rape and subjugation fantasy made to look lovely. It’s not. I beg you: don’t go to the cinema and support it. We decry and decry abuse. We are shocked when we see studies or surveys where men say they’d rape or dominate a woman if they could get away with it.

If you want women to stop being seen as primarily objects for male satisfaction, don’t pay for tickets to see this.

Let’s not support “prettified” abuse masquerading as a redemption tale.

Look, I love the Beauty and the Beast archetype. It’s my favorite for romance tales. I get that a percentage of women want to be submissive and have strong rape fantasies. It’s reality. But is it healthy? I’d say think about that. Would you want your sister or daughter or mother treated like Anastasia? I would prefer “Beauty” not lose her sense of self or identity or even morality to save the Beast.

And ask yourself this: If Grey had not been handsome, charismatic, and very successful and rich, if Grey was some frumpy geek with 2 cents to his name, now do you wanna submit and let him treat you like a sex slave without rights or free will?

Please note: This post is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. I’m not going to be gentle in my terminology or my treatment of the subject. Please also note that I am well aware that men are raped too, but in this post I focus primarily on women victims.

I’ve been pondering writing a post about rape culture for a long time, but I hadn’t, because I know it’s going to cause a stir. People are going to get really mad at some of the things I have to say. People are going to disagree, and it’s going to be a hugely divisive issue.

I finally decided to go ahead and write it, because I think it’s something our culture needs to hear.

We hear all the time about “rape culture” and how it’s a problem in our…

“Will you sleep with me for a million dollars?”
“Okay.”
“Will you sleep with me for ten dollars?”
“What are you thinking! I’m not that kind of girl!”
“Oh, we’ve already decided what kind of girl you are. We’re just haggling about price.”

Mir Writer

I'm Latina and a Christian. I'm married to a great, wonderful man, and I love to read and write, sing , dance, count calories, stargaze when light pollution allows, and nap as much as I can. I write speculative poetry and Christian Speculative fiction, though I also enjoy romance, mysteries, and thrillers. I took a long hiatus from writing, and now want to return with full force. I've edited at two online Christian Spec Fic magazines and want to learn everything I need to self-publish: format, book cover design (basic), and manuscript formtting. Twenty-first century indie publishing is an amazing new adventure.